Foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 8,377 Indiana properties during the first quarter of 2011, down 30 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 and almost 37 percent below the level reported for the same quarter last year, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 3,211 Indiana properties in March, a 15 percent increase from February and down 38 percent from March 2010. One in every 875 Indiana housing units received a foreclosure filing in March, the 22nd highest state foreclosure rate in the nation for the month.

Indiana ranked 19th in the nation in total foreclosures for the first quarter of 2011. Its foreclosure rate of one in 335 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter, ranked it 28th among the 50 states.

CassCounty posts state’s top foreclosure rate for the first quarter

One in every 123 housing units in CassCounty received a foreclosure filing during the first quarter of 2011 — 1.6 times the national average and 2.7 times the state average — the highest foreclosure rate in the state for the first quarter. MarionCounty reported the second highest rate with one in every 158 properties receiving a foreclosure filing — 1.2 times the national average and 2.1 the state average. One in every 181 housing units in JohnsonCounty received a foreclosure filing, the third highest foreclosure rate in the state for the quarter — 1.9 times the state average.

MarionCounty leads state in foreclosure activity during the first quarter

MarionCounty led all counties in total foreclosure activity, reporting 2,659 properties with foreclosure filings during the quarter. LakeCounty was second highest, reporting 868 properties with foreclosure filings. Third highest total was tallied in AllenCounty, where 465 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. Reporting 369 properties with foreclosure filings for the quarter, St. JosephCounty registered the fourth highest total in the state. Fifth highest was JohnsonCounty, where 314 properties with foreclosure filings were reported for the quarter.

State a minor contributor to nation’s foreclosure total in the first quarter

Indiana accounted for 1 percent of the 681,153 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide for the first quarter of 2011. Total U.S. activity decreased almost 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, and was down 27 percent from the level reported for the same quarter in 2010. One in every 191 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

“The nation’s housing market continued to languish in the first quarter, even as foreclosure activity fell to a three-year low,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Weak demand, declining home prices and the lack of credit availability are weighing heavily on the market, which is still facing the dual threat of a looming shadow inventory of distressed properties and the probability that foreclosure activity will begin to increase again as lenders and servicers gradually work their way through the backlog of thousands of foreclosures that have been delayed due to improperly processed paperwork.”

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month — broken out by type of filing by state, county and metropolitan statistical area. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the month, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.